Occult hepatitis B virus infection increases hepatocellular carcinogenesis by eight times in patients with non-B, non-C liver cirrhosis: a cohort study

Summary.  An impact of serum hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA on hepatocarcinogenesis has not been investigated in a cohort of patients with non-B, non-C cirrhosis. Eighty-two consecutive Japanese patients with cirrhosis, who showed negative hepatitis B surface antigen and negative anti-hepatitis C virus, were observed for a median of 5.8 years. Hepatitis B virus core (HBc) region and HBx region were assayed with nested polymerase chain reaction. Both of HBc and HBx DNA were positive in 9 patients (11.0%) and both were negative in 73. Carcinogenesis rates in the whole patients were 13.5% at the end of the 5th year and 24.6% at the 10th year. The carcinogenesis rates in the patients with positive DNA group and negative DNA group were 27.0% and 11.8% at the end of the 5th year, and 100% and 17.6% at the 10th year, respectively ( P  =   0.0078). Multivariate analysis showed that men ( P  =   0.04), presence of HBc and HBx DNA (hazard ratio: 8.25, P  =   0.003), less total alcohol intake ( P  =   0.010), older age ( P  =   0.010), and association of diabetes ( P  =   0.005) were independently associated with hepatocellular carcinogenesis. Existence of serum HBV DNA predicted a high hepatocellular carcinogenesis rate in a cohort of patients with non-B, non-C cirrhosis.